Writing beyond character stereotypes and clichés

I heard author Melissa Lenhardt speak to the Dallas Mystery Writers this month about avoiding clichés when writing women characters. The next week at the DFW Writers Conference, journalist/novelist Richard J. Gonzales addressed the art of writing diverse characters without resorting to stereotypes. Their words struck such resonant notes, I imagined them as a sort of literary duet. 

Lenhardt sounded the first notes. Intrigued--rather, infuriated--by a male writer’s claim that he could write in a woman’s voice, she led the group through a writing exercise designed to strip away our cultural stereotypes about women. If some of the men in her audience were uncomfortable, so perhaps were some of us women. 

“(Stereotypes) weren’t done intentionally,” Lenhardt said. “Women are guilty sometimes also. I’m not talking just about men.”

As Gonzales noted, “We all have implicit biases. It’s a human condition. The problem is, it sneaks into your writing. When you focus on the stereotypes as if that’s all there is, that’s when you fall down.”

image: pixabay

And although literature needs more stories by women and more stories by writers of color, of differing sexual orientations, of people with disabilities, and by writers with multitudes of different points of view, this doesn’t mean we can’t write from the viewpoint of people different from us, in whatever way that may be.

“How do you write about people who are not the same color as you? Why do it?” Gonzales asked. “Our population is becoming increasingly diverse and more complex. This is the market of the future. If you continue writing for Dick and Jane, your audience gets smaller and smaller.”

And for those who ask, “But am I qualified or capable to write about them?” he assured us, “Absolutely. Put your guilt outside the room. You are first and foremost writers. Not white writers or black writers.”

He might well have said, and not male writers or female writers.

The problem arises “when you focus on stereotypes as if that all there is,” he said, citing the popularity of films such as Black Panther that “flip stereotypes on their heads.”

Exactly, Lenhardt said. “I started writing (Westerns) because I wanted to write what I wanted to read, to go against the tropes of the genre.” 

Beginning her research with her father’s VHS collection of Western movies and TV shows, she found herself intrigued but wanting “to write a story about the women who were left behind to defend the fort while the men were out looking for Indians. . . Writing to break tropes is embedded in who I am as a writer.

“Make your woman (character) an individual. Don’t relate everything she does to a guy,” Lenhardt said. 

Similarly, Gonzales’ advice was not to make characters of color mere adjuncts of white characters. And just as no characters—especially diverse ones—should be all bad, don’t make them all good either. It’s a mistake even accomplished writers can make, possibly from fear of either frightening white readers or offending minority readers, Gonzales said, citing the “magical negro” stereotype. 

(I'll add, there are also "magical Native American, Asian, female, child, mentally-disabled, etc. characters. Many of whom die in the course of the story).

And about those deaths, Lenhardt said. Does it always have to be the minority character? Does it always have to be the female character? 

“There’s got to be a prize for books that don’t have females as the victims,” Lenhardt said, encouraging us “to write books that don’t show women as victims.” Or, she added, facetiously (or not) “Just make it even. If you’re going to kill women, kill men too.”

(Note to readers—Lenhardt writes crime as well as historical fiction.)

And just as white writers can pander to sexual fears about characters of color, male and sometimes even female writers can feel compelled to soften cultural fears of powerful women by presenting women in in only sexualized ways.

The male writer whose hubris provoked Lenhard’s discussion featured a woman who sexualized herself. Can we imagine a man doing the same for himself? Lenhardt asked. Instead of writing a woman character who’s sexually confident, it’s all to easy to degenerate into a male sexual fantasy.

Her strongest advice—especially if you’re a male writer attempting to write from a female point of view, “don’t ever describe a woman’s breasts. You’re probably describing boobs we don’t have and it’s just going to piss us off.”

(Definitely nervous twitters from the men in her audience at that advice!)

And skip anything that sounds like “rape culture.” “There are ways to signal sexual interest in a way that don’t sound rapey,” she said.

“When a woman beta reads your story and says something is horrifying, you need to freaking believe her. This also counts for African-Americans, Hispanics, fat people and disabled people.”

If writers are uncomfortable with their women characters--or perhaps their minority characters--Gonzales asked us to remember that “for us minorities, we live in a world where we have to negotiate the majority’s norms. How comfortable is that for us? Everyday?”

But discomfort doesn’t have to be the norm. “What we write affects how we see the world,” Lenhardt said. “Write for the world we want, not the world we have.”

For further resources on writing diverse characters, Gonzales lists “We Need Diverse Books,”“Writing with Color,” “Writing with Diversity Resources,” "DiversifYA,” "Why Diverse Genre Fiction is Important and How to Get it Right," and "Why Diverse Genre Fiction is Important and How To Get it Right."

Writing characters for all the differences in our world

When submitting stories, I often come across pleas from editors for diverse characters. But can authors write about people who are different from themselves. Will diversity simply lead to cringe-worthy narratives that typecast members of minority groups – not to mention women -- as surely as putting a red shirt on a Star Trek extra? So, I circled the panel at the weekend’s WORDfest whose title was “Writing Outside Your Identity – tips for responsibly and realistically portraying other races, genders, abilities & beliefs” as a must-see. 

With moderator Ann Fields and panelists Rebecca Balcarcel, David Douglas, Kathryn McClatchy and Bill Ledbetter, I now have some tools to keep my diverse characters from being doomed to anonymous death. Tools to rip those red shirts off their backs and replace them with a rainbow of roles.

L-r, Douglas & McClatchy

“What’s your most effective tip for inhabiting the skin of a character different from you?” moderator Fields asked her panelists, who included a Hispanic woman (Balcarcel), two differently-abled writers (Douglas and McClatchy, who is also a Native American), and yes, Ledbetter, an actual self-identified white guy without any special qualifications in sight. Except of course, that he’s a writer. And one eager to avoid emulating a nameless and clueless colleague who attempted to write a humorous take on sexual harassment. (Ouch!)

The key, often repeated by panelists, was to remember our common humanity – and that of our characters and readers.

“We all have the same likes and desires,” Ledbetter said, “but everyone has their own backstory. I try to focus on ways I might be like the person (in the story) and steer away from the way I’m different. . . but I do think you should be brave and not shy away from writing a variety of characters. Don’t block people out.”

Balcarcel agreed – to some extent but cautioned writers to know their limits. Just as Ledbetter admitted he hasn’t (yet) tried to write a sex scene from a woman’s point of view, Balcarcel noted that although she’s the mother of autistic children, “I don’t know that I would write an autistic kid (character) in first person.”

What happens when the character’s difference lies not in ethnicity or ability but in sexual orientation? Can a straight writer do justice to a gay character? (I’d love to have heard from a gay author about writing straight characters!)

Falling back on the bedrock of common humanity with different backstories, Balcarcel noted, sexual orientation “is not all there is to say about that character. Write against type if there are types.” 

And as Douglas noted, “I so have a perspective about being disabled, being in a wheelchair. The inner part is the same, but you can add outer layers.”

And of course, no “red shirts.” Characters of color should earn their spot, panelists said. Don't write a diverse character just to be diverse.

What if the “different” character is the story?

Balcarcel admitted having qualms as she undertook a story about Sally Hemings, the mixed-race slave woman with whom Thomas Jefferson had a long-term relationship (and who DNA evidence now proves fathered Hemings’ children). 

“I didn’t think I had the right to that story,” Balcarcel said. But after doing extensive research, Balcarcel found herself at a conference sitting next to one of Hemings’ descendants.

“He said, ‘Write that story. You’re a human being, plus you have done the research – so write that story!”

Ledbetter noted the benefit of having a diverse group of writing friends to give him feedback. McClatchy agreed there. “This is one of the most important reasons to be in a writers’ group. . .  (Also) we should be reading the works of people different from us. Part of writing outside our identities is dropping the assumptions we have about people. If we don’t have characters outside our comfort zone, our characters fall flat.”

And don’t be afraid to ask for help. “I would so much rather you ask me what it’s like living with a service dog,” McClatchy said. “When you mention you’re a writer, it opens doors. People want their stories to be told.”